Palestine: Once again?
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
In its bid to become a state, a sovereign nation-state with independence, Palestine is all set to try again at the forthcoming session of the United Nations General Assembly. It is likely to receive a majority of votes in that body since, for the first time, the world sympathy is with the Palestinian people.
Palestine first experienced dispossession in 1948 and occupation in 1967. The immigrant aliens first began to gobble up the Palestinian land in 1917 and in 1948 they snatched up whatever was possible.
The United States and Israel do not want to change the status quo. Both are working furiously, to make sure that the vote falls short of the majority. The United States is likely to cast its negative vote, a veto in the Security Council. A majority is needed in that body including the votes of all the permanent members.
Palestine will once again be thrown back into Israel’s lap to languish under occupation and bear the intolerable brutalities of alien boots.
The vast majority of the people in the US Congress will be very happy. Only a tiny minority will be upset including our own Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN). The members of the Tea Party will be on cloud nine.
While most colonial peoples are entitled to freedom, the Palestinians are not. The US government has proven this point by casting its vetoes at the UN and in the Congress in passing countless resolutions against Palestine. The Palestinians have no rights.
The majority of the people in Israel favor statehood for Palestine, but not so the right wing government of that country, nor the conservatives in this country. President Obama, despite his sugary rhetoric, is likely to side with the rightist elements on that issue.
Many in the Republican Party will be elated. The entire Southern Bible Belt will be jumping up and down given that Arabs and Islam are seen as their enemies.
In Washington Palestinians are not considered to be worthy of human dignity or human rights. Many in Israel believe that they do not deserve to be treated as humans.
In it negotiations the United States always sides with the Israelis, never with the Palestinians. After the two speeches every Arab has come to suspect President Obama’s words and regard the honeyed-rhetoric delivered in Ankara and Cairo as meaningless. While Palestinians have received sympathetic publicity everywhere they are an exception in America. In this country the media simply parrots the Israeli line on everything and expects everyone to believe it.
Western colonialism created Israel and the US footed its military bills. Further, the US developed its nuclear capability. The US believes that it did the right thing by giving the land to Israel and making the Palestinian landless. The natives don’t deserve anything. And yet Washington cannot believe why America would be subjected to terrorist attacks.
As a matter of fact Palestinians should not give away even an inch of territory to Israel or to anybody else. Historical Palestine belongs to Palestinians and much of this land was occupied in 1948, or in 1967. Owing to the presence of Bait-al-Muqqadas, Palestine is Holy to the entire Muslim community.
Recently a rabbi uttered the following words: "God should strike them and these Palestinians -- evil haters of Israel -- with a plague." The 89-year-old rabbi said this in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio on Sunday. Washington did not hear these words. It hears only the negative words of the Palestinians.
The world is changing. The former colonized peoples, whether in Egypt or Indonesia or India or China, are rising up and are beginning to stand on their own feet. The signs of change are everywhere. The days of colonialism are over.
